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This Is What Makes Us Girls (song)
|DS = |album = Born to Die |previous = "Summertime Sadness" |next = "Without You" }}"This Is What Makes Us Girls"' '(also registered as "What Makes Us Girls") is a song by Lana Del Rey released on her second studio album, Born to Die. It serves as the closing track from the standard edition of the album. The track was written with Tim Larcombe and Jim Irvin, with production by Al Shux and Emile Haynie. Background and writing Three demos of the song exist, the first leaked November, 2011, alongside a demo of "National Anthem" preceding the album's release, the second leaked September 29, 2012 and the third demo leaked January 23, 2015. The three demos are all noticeably have a more pop sound that was scrapped on the final release. Unlike most other demos of tracks from Born to Die, the demos have different vocal takes accommodating for lyric and tempo changes. The second and third demo were produced by Peter "Neros" Ibsen. The final version shares the same background noise sample with "Off to the Races". Lyrically, the song is Del Rey recounting her wild-child youth, while explaining things she and her friends did that made them girls, including looking for heaven and love, and putting men ahead of their friendships. During an interview in May 2014, Del Rey described the "stealing police cars with the senior guys" lyric is actually from her time in Lake Placid when an unnamed female friend of hers got into a police car with the door open, but failed to get away because she was unable to drive. Live performances "This Is What Makes Us Girls" has never been featured in a live performance by Del Rey, unlike every other track on the standard edition of Born to Die which has been performed at least once. Although the song has never been performed in its entirety, Del Rey sang the first verse and chorus a cappella on February 8, 2018 during a visit to Seacrest Studios at Children's Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Cross-references *Del Rey talks about her time at school in "Boarding School". *Cherries are also mentioned in "Carmen" and "Cherry". *A mention of ribbons in one's hair is found in "Heroin" and "Tired of Singing the Blues". *Velvet is also referenced in "Blue Velvet", "Fake Diamond" and "Velvet Crowbar". *Blue ribbon is also mentioned in the title of "Gramma (Blue Ribbon Sparkler Trailer Heaven)". Official versions * Album version — 3:58 * Instrumental version — 3:56 * Demo version 1 — 3:36 (produced by Tim Larcombe) * Demo version 2 — 4:06 * Demo version 3 — 4:03 Lyrics Album version Demo version one Demo version two/three Credits ;Personnel *Lana Del Rey — vocals, songwriting *Tim Larcombe & Jim Irvin — songwriting *Al Shux — production, vocal production, guitars, bass, keyboards, programming *Emile Haynie — production, drums, sounds, additional keyboards *Larry Gold — strings arrangement and conduction *Steve Tirpak — strings assistance *Manny Marroquin — mixing *Erik Madrid & Chris Galland — mixing assistance *John Davis — mastering ;Technical *Published by EMI / Warner Chappell *Mastered at Metropolis Mastering, London, United Kingdom *Mixed at Miloco's Engine Room, London, United Kingdom Category:Born to Die songs Category:Songs Category:Released songs